Microsoft Announces Surface Go

It’s official: Surface Go is Microsoft’s new affordable Surface tablet PC, and it goes on sale next month.

“Surface Go is our smallest, lightest, and most affordable Surface yet,” Surface Chief Product Officer Panos Panay writes. “When we designed this device, we had to ask ourselves what people want and need from a 10-inch Surface. The answers seem obvious – lightweight, productive, and accessible to more people. I’m pumped to introduce you to Surface Go, because it’s all those things, and so much more.”

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Weighing in at just over 1 pound—or about 1.5 pounds with a Type Cover—the Surface Go visually resembles the new Surface Pro, but is smaller, lighter, thinner, and much less expenses: Pricing starts at just $399, but most customers will want a Type Cover (at a cost of $99 to $129). And I strongly recommend upgrading to a more powerful configuration (see below) that costs about $549.

Regardless, what you will get is fairly impressive for the money: Surface Go is powered by a Pentium processor and is fanless and thus silent. It can be outfitted with 4 GB of RAM and 64 GB of eMMC storage for $499, or you can choose a more capable version with a faster Pentium processor, 8 GB of RAM, and 128 GB of fast SSD storage for just $549. Each includes a 10-inch 3:2 display.

As with Surface Pro, a Type Cover and a Surface Pen will cost extra. Microsoft is offering both a standard Type Cover, for $99, and three different Signature Type Covers, in Alcantara and your choice of Platinum, Burgundy, or Cobalt Blue for $129. Surface Pen remains at $99, and Microsoft is also selling a new Surface Mobile Mouse, again in Platinum, Burgundy, or Cobalt Blue, for $35.

The initial Surface Go models are Wi-Fi only, but Microsoft is planning an LTE model for “later this year.” An upgrade to 256 GB of SSD storage will also be made available as an order-time option at some point.

Surface Go is available for pre-order starting tomorrow, July 9, in the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, UK, Ireland, France, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Switzerland, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Poland, Taiwan, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Malaysia, and Thailand. It will be available for purchase in those countries starting on August 2.

Those in Japan can pre-order Surface Go beginning on July 11, in Singapore and Korea on August 2, and in China on August 8. Then, Surface Go will be made available for pre-order in Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Oman, Kuwait, and Bahrain on September 12, and in India on October 2.

More soon.

 

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Conversation 13 comments

  • SvenJ

    09 July, 2018 - 9:16 pm

    <p>So an updated Surface 3, at about the same price as those were. (bet LTE will add $100-$130)</p>

  • Polycrastinator

    09 July, 2018 - 9:23 pm

    <p>If you're going from eMMC to true SSD storage between those 2 models, there's no contest. You should absolutely do the step up. This is an exciting device, but with the cost of the keyboard and pen, too, I worry it's a little bit too expensive. I'd have liked to see a "crayon" like peripheral at $50 for the education market if they want to use pens.</p>

    • Paul Thurrott

      Premium Member
      09 July, 2018 - 10:16 pm

      <blockquote><a href="#290013"><em>In reply to Polycrastinator:</em></a></blockquote><p>Agreed. I will have a tip about this in the morning.</p>

  • Chris_Kez

    Premium Member
    09 July, 2018 - 10:44 pm

    <p>Did they say why an LTE option is not available at launch? You know, Always Connected initiative and all…</p>

    • Paul Thurrott

      Premium Member
      10 July, 2018 - 9:36 am

      <blockquote><a href="#290043"><em>In reply to Chris_Kez:</em></a></blockquote><p>They didn't say why, just that it was coming later.</p>

  • 2ilent8cho

    10 July, 2018 - 6:45 am

    <p>But it runs Windows 10 and will be on an update screen when i want to use it. So its a no from me.</p>

    • jean

      10 July, 2018 - 8:34 am

      <blockquote><a href="#290110"><em>In reply to 2ilent8cho:</em></a></blockquote><p><em>which means you work for 5 minutes every first tuesday in a month and for 10 extra minutes every 6 months – all of that outside business hours – nice job </em></p><p><br></p>

  • jwpear

    Premium Member
    10 July, 2018 - 7:49 am

    <p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent;">Paul, any idea why Microsoft feels the need to differentiate by slow or fast storage?&nbsp; This will be confusing for people. It is the sort of thing that's going to provide a poor experience for folks and will erode their confidence in Windows and Microsoft.&nbsp; I don't believe Apple does this with their storage system–you get the same storage system performance at all price levels (ignoring the impact of larger size SSDs on speed).</span></p><p><br></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent;">eMMC was the one factor that completely ruined the Surface 3 for me. I returned it within a few days. There was just no way it was going to be workable over the long term and no way I would recommend it to friends. </span></p><p><br></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent;">I'm disappointed that Microsoft is still using eMMC. A $400 tablet is not in cheap tablet territory. You could argue its also not in the cheap laptop price range once you add the keyboard.</span></p>

    • Paul Thurrott

      Premium Member
      10 July, 2018 - 9:36 am

      <blockquote><a href="#290120"><em>In reply to jwpear:</em></a></blockquote><p>I'm glad they stuck to one processor, but I don't understand the eMMC thing. Huge mistake.</p>

  • CaedenV

    10 July, 2018 - 8:23 am

    <p>In a world where it is harder and harder to find 8GB of RAM and a 120+GB SSD for under $1000 (at least not on the used market), this is a very welcome product. Hopefully we will see a return of decent sub-$1000 PCs which the Surface lineup has killed over the past few years. Very good prospects for my kids.</p><p><br></p><p>Only problem is that the schools are all either Apple or Chromebook in my area… so I will probably get my kids what they need to work best in the school environment. :(</p>

    • Paul Thurrott

      Premium Member
      10 July, 2018 - 9:37 am

      <blockquote><a href="#290123"><em>In reply to CaedenV:</em></a></blockquote><p>Agreed. </p>

  • F4IL

    10 July, 2018 - 9:52 am

    <p>Unfortunately, my fears about eMMC storage were confirmed. This is a big problem for I/O intensive applications, not to mention the occasional multi GB windows updates.</p>

  • Rickard Eriksson

    11 July, 2018 - 1:38 am

    <p>I remember Pentium as only a step above Celeron so to me this is only a read mail and casually surf device that i could possibly recommend to users that only do very light work on their computers. </p><p><br></p>

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